"There is really no quality among SLR's to match that of the Contarex. If you buy just one SLR to admire, stroke, hold in front of the fire on a winter's evening and never load with film, it should be a Contarex Cyclops (in Britain) or Bullseye (in the land of the free). The perfection of the engineering is breathtaking. It also comes expensive, so you need to be fairly well endowed with available cash to be able to afford one as a substitute for a Siamese cat."
Ivor Matanle, from "Collecting & Using Classic SLRs"
This is really a bit to the cameras. Certainly they are not like other SLRs. They definitely take some time to get used to. Once you do get used to the quirks, they really work very well.
The only thing I'm still getting used to with mine is just carrying it. These things are *heavy*.
The only thing I don't like about it is it's reliability (or lack thereof). Then again, my dad humped this thing from one end of Australia to the other for the best part of forty years, so I guess it has the right to feel worn out.
Copyright 1995-2003 Les Mulder